Climate Change Could Spread Sexually Transmitted Food Poison

Warming seas from climate change could spread ciguatera fish poisoning, a potentially sexually transmitted form of food poisoning, according to NPR.

The report looks at a 25-year-old study that suggested ciguatera could have been sexually transmitted from a husband to his wife in two separate cases. The poison could have been passed along to the wives through semen, according to the study from the journal Clinical Toxicology.

That study appears even more relevant today, because cases of ciguatera have been confirmed in new areas, including Vermont, North Carolina and New York, perhaps because of warming seas, according to another study from the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Symptoms of the food poisoning include painful sex and hallucinations. There is no treatment for ciguatera, but the symptoms can be lessened. Otherwise, symptoms can last up to a few weeks.

The NPR report offers a few ways to avoid the toxin:

“Don't order the red snapper or grouper caught in areas associated with ciguatera outbreaks, [neuropsychologist Melissa Freidman] recommends. "You can't detect the toxin by smell or sight. So you really don't know when you're eating it."

Plus, you can't cook, clean or freeze the toxin away from the fish. "That's what's so frustrating about the illness," she says. "It doesn't occur because of improper cooking, storing or fish handling."

And when you do eat fin fish that hang around coral reefs, Friedman says, go for the smaller ones, less than about 3 pounds. Or eat a limited portion.”